White Center Now: The blog about White Center

WestSide Baby, which is headquartered in White Center and helps families here as well as West Seattle and environs, just put out an urgent call for newborn-size diapers – those shelves are bare! WestSide Baby collects diapers at its headquarters (10032 15th SW) as well as several other West Seattle locations and even one in Burien; full list is here.

Tall Latte at Half-Price – Rush Hour Special 6:00 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.\

Weary commuters, we know what a grind it is to get in your car and join the mad rush to that beloved job. So Cafe Rozella wants to make your commute a little easier. Pull up to Cafe Rozella, jump out of your car and get a tall latte for half the usual price! Just come in before 7:30 am and say, “I want my commuter special!” While supplies last.
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Keep up on current affairs and latest White Center developments at the WC blog: whitecenternow.com

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Freebie 2.0 download of the day. If you are like me, as you work at your computer, either on the web or while writing, you run into stuff that you want to save for later or merely want to have around for later use (like a software key, an address or a phone number). If you use gmail, you could email it to yourself but that has its limits. Well there is a tremendous freeware download called Evernote that allows you to record, save, copy and generally memorialize anything on your PC and best of all it syncs with all your computers so if you save something on your laptop while surfing at Cafe Rozella it will be in your Evernote clipboard in your home desktop. The download can be found at: Evernote download.

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News and Views:

Get to know potential President Sarah Palin

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Upcoming Events

That shelf of quirky collectibles (if you’re over 40 like me, the lunchboxes may strike a note of nostalgia!) graces the office of Mount View Elementary‘s new principal Mark Demick, who says they’re just items he’s picked up “along the way.” And what a way it’s been, bringing him from his first teaching job in the farming community of Delano, California — where parent/teacher conferences were sometimes held at vineyard worksites – to this new role in White Center. Read on to find out more about him, why he’s excited about the job, and what he hopes to do: Read the rest of this entry »

(update: here’s a link to a map of all Friday’s PARKing Day “Parks” citywide)
Perhaps you’ve heard of PARKing Day – a relatively new annual event in which volunteers in cities nationwide transform parking spaces into parks, to spotlight the importance of urban open space. This year’s edition is coming up on Friday, and there’s going to be a PARKing Day “park” in a prominent White Center spot – here’s the official announcement:

Seattle Parks Foundation is partnering with The Trust for Public Land and Feet First to turn Seattle’s parking spaces into parks on September 19th as part of PARK(ing) Day, a fun and visible event started by Re-Bar in San Francisco to bring attention to the need for more green space in urban areas.

Technology Access Foundation and The White Center Community Development Association will be transforming the parking spaces in front of Full Tilt Ice Cream into a classroom. We are hoping to provide awareness to the community about the work that we do. Everyone is invited to come out and show support to the community.

National Parking Day
Friday, September 19
10:00 am – 3:00 pm

In front of:
Full Tilt Ice Cream
9629 16th Ave SW

Come out and meet your community neighbors!
For More info call – 206-722-2369×102

From partner site WSB: A child-care job opening specifically targeting White Center as well as West Seattle. Check it out here.

King County’s out with a new report today about growth, and is using the occasion to reiterate that it needs unincorporated areas such as White Center need to be annexed to cities. Here’s the official news release: Read the rest of this entry »

White Center Now was invited to check out the start of the Burien City Council meeting tonight, to be on hand for a special presentation – on behalf of a program that may be setting a national precedent. Twenty Highline Public Schools teachers are getting financial help for rental housing in Burien, but they don’t have to teach in Burien – and in fact, five of the first 12 chosen for the program are teaching in the White Center/North Highline area, according to Jenn Ramirez Robson from the office of Burien City Manager Mike Martin; Ramirez Robson explains, “To our knowledge we have not been able to find a similar program anywhere in the United States. Many states offer mortgage assistance but I have yet to find anything that relates to grants or subsidies toward rental housing.”. Several of those teachers are in the front row of the group shot we caught candidly above; speakers included State House Speaker Frank Chopp (the state played a role in this too) and Highline Public Schools Superintendent John Welch, who ceremonially accepted the quarter-million dollar grant from Burien Mayor Joan McGilton tonight. Welch explained how the grant is helping with teacher recruiting in the areas where the district needs help the most (he introduces the teachers during this section of his speech, too):

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34th District State Rep. Eileen Cody was there for the occasion too, along with 33rd District Rep. Dave Upthegrove, mentioned when Chopp alluded to the money’s origins in the long and difficult Lora Lake Apartments saga:

Click pic to play video

Here are a few more details about the program, from a City of Burien document: Read the rest of this entry »

Most of the Metro bus service changes announced by County Executive Ron Sims today don’t have a major direct impact on White Center – but there is one WC-specific change: a late-night trip is cut from Route 23. See all the changes (which take effect next Saturday), listed here.

Figured we would start one of these the first time someone wrote us asking for help in finding a lost pet, or finding the owner of a “found” pet – and our first such e-mail just came in, so the page is launched. See it here (and check out the missing-kitty photo); check the page any time from the list atop the left sidebar; and if you have lost or found a pet in the White Center area, e-mail us information (and a photo if available) to whitecenternow@gmail.com.

Latest proof the library’s not just for books these days: Teen games at White Center Library, 2:30 pm Wednesday – GameCube, Wii, XBox 360 – more info on the latest library calendar of events (which also includes world-language storytimes!).

From the White Center Now events calendar (is your event missing? please e-mail us!) – This Thursday is the night when the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council – the community council that represents YOU if you live in White Center and other areas between the Seattle and Burien city limits — invites you to a community meeting to discuss annexation and a whole lot more. Here’s our original preview; it’s at St. Bernadette’s (map)

Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle is inviting area gardeners to bring extra vegetables/fruit to the West Seattle Farmers’ Market tomorrow for a fresh-food collection drive they’re calling “Share the Bounty” – the White Center Food Bank will get everything that’s gathered, says CHoSS. Here’s more info on the CHoSS website; if you haven’t been to the Farmers’ Market before, it’s in the West Seattle Junction, at 44th SW/Alaska (map), 10 am-2 pm tomorrow (and every Sunday, year-round).

Today’s the last scheduled day of the year for the Master Gardener program to have its weekly clinic at McLendon’s answering your questions (“what IS this weird plant I found?” and more), 10 am-2 pm.

Click pic to play vid

Hot music and cool treats – The Allegations rocked Full Tilt last night, and here’s a sample.

Click pic to play video

Ricardo shared a lively Reptet reminiscence earlier in the week (click here if you missed it) – as you can see by our video from tonight’s performance, they definitely lived up to advance billing. And what a gorgeous night – guess this makes up for some of that August rain. Here’s where to find out more about Reptet (billed on their website as “an original jazz sextet from Seattle.”

UPDATED FROM ORIGINAL FRIDAY MORNING VERSION: MagnoliaVoice.com covered a Magnolia meeting Thursday night regarding the proposed jail site in Interbay. That site’s original report said that Burgess thought the Interbay and “South Seattle” sites were the most likely ones of the “final four” — since there is no “South Seattle” site, but rather two West Seattle sites (Highland Park Way SW/West Marginal Way and Myers Way South), we contacted the Magnolia Voice editor (a veteran journalist who I worked with for years in Seattle citywide media), who reported he’d said Myers Way (which she confirmed when we checked with her again just now). However, Councilmember Burgess left a comment on this post saying he had mentioned the “First Avenue South Bridge” site, and pointing to a post on his own blog from early August in which he said Interbay and “First Avenue South Bridge” were the sites most likely to meet the criteria. No site is identified as “First Avenue South Bridge” on the city list; the Highland Park Way SW/West Marginal Way site is the closest to that bridge. We have a message out to Councilmember Burgess to clarify that’s the one he describes as “First Avenue South Bridge.” and will update this again if/when we hear back. *Note that we have not amended the comment thread below, so it refers to the original version of this post, up through my response to Councilmember Burgess’s comment; anything after that would be responding to this updated post.* UPDATED SUNDAY AFTERNOON: Councilmember Burgess’ reply to our request for clarification of which site he meant:

Correct, the West Marginal site which is about 1.5 blocks off the southwest corner of the bridge. The site is partially owned by the city and partially owned by WSDOT which used it as a staging location when the bridge was repaired a few years back. I refer to it as the First Avenue South Bridge site because that helps people understand the geographic location better than the intersection.

A customer walks into Cafe Rozella and before I have chance to say anything he blurts out, “so, how many times have you been robbed?”  I stuttered, “What?”  He replied, “This is such a dangerous neighborhood, you must be robbed all the time.”  I got his order and looked him over:  silk pants, expensive sport shirt, Italian loafers — looked like a salesman.  “None,” I replied.

Ruminating for a minute, I said, “actually this is a very safe neighborhood.  Crime statistics show this is much safer than most other urban Seattle neighborhoods.”  Yeah, but you have so many creeps around here… blah, blah, blah… he stammered on.

“Where do you live?” I asked him.  “White Center,” he said with a laugh.  When he saw that I wasn’t in on his joke, he mentioned the very same neighborhood that I live in.   Now, I could clue this fool in, but I knew that he had a bagful of prejudices and preconceptions that no amount of small conversation would alter.

I thought about all the Rozella regulars who make this their second home:  tradespeople, programmers, biotech scientists, teachers, counselors, government workers, students, writers and artists.  Does this guy have a clue about the richness and diversity in this community?  I’ll admit that, as with any urban neighborhood, there are a fair number of street alcoholics who wander around like extras in the Blade-Runner movie.  But what of all the families walking to buy groceries at the Asian and Latin American markets?  Are they invisible?  Only to those too blind to see.

My dad was a mechanic and hence I relate well to people who do the complex jobs known as the trades.  God has a special place for the grace of those who work with their hands.  I love these people and they represent the best of our community.  And what of the artists who struggle to fulfill a vision — that takes courage.

All this went through my mind from that small exchange.  And the guy didn’t even leave a tip.

REPTET brings their award-winning and energetic jazz to Rozella.

Friday September 12th at 7 p.m.

Reptet is a sextet consisting of six multi-instrumentalists all of whom are members of the internationally acclaimed Monktail Creative Music Concern based out of Seattle, WA. They have established themselves as a group of considerable excitement, flair and vision while simultaneously debunking preconceived notions of what a jazz group ought to be. Their music has been aired on radio stations across the United States and Europe, and their members have toured internationally. The arts organization Earshot Jazz has described them as, “A hot progressive combo of Seattle’s best young players. Their music is intense, taut, and fresh.” With the release of their second full length CD Do This!, Reptet has established themselves as an irrepressible force in modern jazz.

Press Quotes
“This Seattle sextet does it all: it grooves, it rocks, it squawks – occasionally, it even talks. Mostly, it sounds like a New Orleans jazz band on crystal meth.” ~Alex Gelfand’s Critics pick for the best release of 2006, Jazziz Magazine~

“Trumpeter Samantha Boshnack’s open voicings, jaunty tempos and buoyant timbral mixes for two winds and two brass have a friendly monster feel that conjures a bittersweet and elegiac mood of orchestral grandeur.” ~Downbeat~

“A juggernaut jazz band, arresting, compelling, and just plain cranked-up. Do This! is one of the most convincing albums of the last several years from Seattle jazz players.” ~Earshot Jazz~

The Puget Sound Regional Council is looking for your opinion on several transportation projects around the metro area that are slated to get millions of federal dollars – and one of them happens to be proposed “Intelligent Transportation System” work along 16th SW through White Center, from Roxbury to 116th. Find out more – and find the direct online link to send your comment – by going to this PSRC webpage. Comments will be accepted through October 9th.